AICTE to bring Entrepreneurship Courses in UG, PG Curriculum

If we look back to past two decades, the word “Entrepreneurship in India” was largely limited to a family owned business. Hardly we have heard the statement “I want to become an entrepreneur and start a business” from the children born and brought up in 1980s and in early 1990s. But with the advancement in technology and communication, the country’s economic environment has undergone a tremendous change and simultaneously the ecosystem for entrepreneurs also saw a change. Young and enterprising individuals who had interesting ideas stepped into the industry and brought a new start-up revolution in the country. Flipkart, Snapdeal, Zomato, Paytm, Ola and Practo are some inspiring examples of startups that have emerged in the past decade and have completely re-written the rules of the game.

According to the NASSCOM ecosystem startup report 2015, India is now the third leading startup originator in the world, with $5 billion worth investment in 2015 and three to four startups emerging every day. The report suggests that the number of active investors in the startup ecosystem in India grew from 220 in 2014 to 490 in 2015, a more than two-fold increase in just one year.

Interestingly, the government at the center is leaving no stone unturned in taking its ambitious ‘Start-up India’ campaign to campuses across the country, paving the way for students to launch business ventures and become job creators just like Mark Zuckerberg did with Facebook.

AICTE has come out with a New Policy which will enable students pursuing their undergraduate and post-graduate degrees to take up a specialized course on start-ups. The policy is likely to be unveiled by President Pranab Mukherjee next week. The policy will serve as a guide to groom students to take up entrepreneurial careers. A committee was formed for this purpose and they have highlighted the need for re-orienting academic curriculum too.

The provision of acquiring a degree with specialisation in start-ups will be ensured in every professional course such as B.Tech, BBA, B.Pharma and M.Tech.

As part of the course on start-ups, students will be able to learn the basics of entrepreneurial marketing and small business management among other skills.

To ensure that students who launch their own start-ups are able to complete their education, the institutes will allow them the flexibility to take a cooling off period for a year and rejoin the course.

As per a study conducted by the International School of Entrepreneurship Education and Development (ISEED), while 90 percent of surveyed Indian students saw entrepreneurship opportunities in the country, 87 per cent aspired to become an entrepreneur at a point in their lifetime.

Earlier this year, Modi visited Silicon Valley-based headquarters of student start-ups such as Google and Facebook and is aiming to replicate their success stories in India. Modi also announced a three-year income tax holiday and Rs 10,000-crore fund for its Start-Up India initiative, crucial for the country struggling to revive industry and create jobs needed to absorb about 10 million people joining the workforce every year.